49ers hasty in writing off Smith

Ray Ratto

Published 4:00 am, Friday, September 5, 2008

Photo: Paul Sakuma, AP

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San Francisco 49ers' Vice President of Player Personnel Scot McCloughan listens during a news conference at 49ers headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, April 19, 2007 as he talks about the upcoming April 28-29 NFL football draft. The 49ers have the 11th pick in the draft. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Ran on: 05-02-2007
Scot McCloughan, the 49ers' vice president of player personnel, has been a successful talent evaluator with Seattle and Green Bay.
Ran on: 09-05-2008
Scot McCloughan went public with his feelings about Alex Smith's future.
Ran on: 09-05-2008 less

San Francisco 49ers' Vice President of Player Personnel Scot McCloughan listens during a news conference at 49ers headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, April 19, 2007 as he talks about the upcoming ... more

Photo: Paul Sakuma, AP

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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith (11) watches the game from the sidelines against the San Diego Chargers in the third quarter of their preseason NFL football game in San Francisco, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) less

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith (11) watches the game from the sidelines against the San Diego Chargers in the third quarter of their preseason NFL football game in San Francisco, Friday, Aug. 29, ... more

Photo: Paul Sakuma, AP

49ers hasty in writing off Smith

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For weeks now, Lane Kiffin has worked to find buttons that when pressed would irritate Al Davis - Javon Walker, not enough depth on the roster, and on and on. Whatever his desired end game, though, he has backed away from the public carp-fest lately because his best way out is to win with what he has.

Just in time, as it turns out, for the 49ers to throw one last fragmentation grenade at their own pet abuse project, Alex D. Smith.

You saw the quotes, or heard about them. Scot McCloughan said what any mathematician could deduce, that if Smith doesn't become the starting quarterback at some point and show what he showed in his one year under Norv Turner, he would be let loose in 2009 for cap and karma reasons.

Now the 49ers general manager wasn't pestered to give this answer, or tied to a chair and sodium pentothal-ed into giving up a secret. He wanted to say it, and he said it.

"You can't. You can't," he said when asked if he could afford to keep Smith next year as a backup. "The amount of money we're going to invest in him, it would have to be proven that he is the guy going into the offseason, that he is our guy for next year."

In other words, only in a worst-case scenario could Smith stay a 49er, to learn a new system under a new coordinator for a new coach. This, we all could surmise.

But for McCloughan to make it a public declaration before Game 1 of the previous season is as much of a see-ya-later-and-don't-let-the-door-etc. as you can get. The 49ers are making it clear that they want Smith to be someone's else's employee next year, even though they might still need him this year. He out-Kiffin-ed Kiffin, and he's not even trying to get the boss to fire him.

Now we all appreciate the truth and all, candor being the last act of any desperate football man. And it isn't like this wasn't the way the Smith story was heading, given that he lost the job to J.T. O'Sullivan in a matter of seeming moments. His 2009 base salary of nearly $10 million is about $9,250,000 more than most clipboard jockeys get, and as a work environment the NFL is about as sentimental as a coal mine.

But McCloughan's complete lack of hesitation on Smith, especially when he danced so energetically around the question of Mike Nolan's future as head coach and de facto general manager, suggests that decisions have already been made, to wit:

If O'Sullivan struggles or goes down, Shaun Hill becomes the 49ers' new favorite quarterback. The damage done to Smith's career while here is so extensive that he cannot possibly function well in San Francisco, nor would he want to. There are only so many ways you can be told you're not wanted, or that you can't be helped, before you take the hint.

If Hill struggles or goes down, the season is lost anyway, and a new coach (or general manager, for that matter) is going to want to start clean, and there's nothing that ties him to Smith.

But the matter of why remains unclear. McCloughan doesn't know if he can afford to be rid of Smith yet; the hurry to drop the dime on him is as inexplicable as it is gratuitous. McCloughan's not trying to get fired, at least as far as we know, and it isn't like slagging Smith publicly would get him on the wrong side of whichever York is running the team today.

There is frankly no good reason to make Smith's departure a matter of public policy unless the plan here is to rub Smith's face in his lousy situation to insure his departure under any circumstances. It's like they want everyone in the NFL to know they can come get him at their leisure, and let the insult stand on its own.

Whatever else Smith did in his time here - cash checks, get clobbered, throw interceptions, get in Nolan's crosshairs - he didn't have this coming, at least not in any way that anyone knows. He did grouse about Nolan once last year, causing a great hoop-de-doo that looked for all the world like a case of "This team's not big enough for the two of us" showdown.

But that's it. He gritted his teeth, he bore the brunt of the organization's short-attention span, he got in on the ground floor and got beaten into it. If he isn't good enough, then he shouldn't start and maybe not even play. The NFL is cruel, after all, but it's rarely fair.

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McCloughan's haste to align the torches to burn the last bridge, though, strongly suggests that yet again, the 49ers not only don't see the forest for the trees, they don't even pick out the leaves for the bark. They needn't hurry to tell everyone they're done with Smith, especially when they're really not.

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